Melody [0:00]
Welcome to the Game Master Certification Organization's interview excerpt podcast series! Hi, I'm Melody Rainelle and I'll be your host. In this series of episodes, we have the pleasure of chatting with Shauntelle B, and getting to know them a little bit better. Without further ado, Shauntelle, would you like to introduce yourself and maybe provide your Linktree so our listeners can find you.

ShauntelleB [0:25]
Yeah. I am Shauntelle Benjamin - ShauntelleB on Twitter [@shauntelleb]. I'm a psychologist, an actor, a writer, a sometime GM, a streamer... if it has anything to do with words, I probably have something to do with it.

So my Linktree is just ShauntelleB s-h-a-u-n-t-e-double l-e-b. So, link-t-r-dot-e-e-forward slash-ShauntelleB.

Melody [0:53]
Great! Thank you so much! Well, our next question is what is your favorite thing about the game? How did you learn the game? And you're welcome to start with Omen's Rising tabletop role playing game - I know you're involved with that.

ShauntelleB [1:06]
Okay. What do I like about Omen's Rising? Oh, a whole lot. I mean, I'm one of the writers, so I'm very, very biased. But the way that Omen's Rising is designed, it is very emotionally aware. So, this particular tabletop game is exploratory. It doesn't have any races, everyone's human. It doesn't have any classes. What it does have uses a card-based system that is similar to tarot, um, or tarot [different pronunciations], but not those things. It's not that. So you're divining your future, you're divining your omen. You're following or eschewing your destiny. The thing about Omen's Rising that really catches me, is the way in which it leaves the story open to you - as a group you build the story, as a group you interact and create the adventure that you're going to go on. There is a lot to mine in it. There's so much history, there's so much future, there's so much everything. And I think one of the things that I like about this game that we're designing over other games is that diversity is not an afterthought, is one thing- there's a lot of things. Diversity's not an afterthought. There are, as far as I know, about 33 people in the team. More than half have a neurodiversity. Roughly half, as far as I'm aware, have another kind of disability. And we have people from all over the world, literally all over the world. I was surprised when they were bringing me onto the team and they were like, "Oh yeah. We'll like- we'll just hook you up with the other Australian." I was like, "What?! Another Australian?!" Not only are they Australian, but they're a person of color! It's wonderful- And they're a person of color that's not the same kind of person of color that I am they're not- they're not black. It's - It's amazing! So, the thing that that brings to- again, I don't think people realize... because the way that we have built society or the way that society is designed and the way that everything works at the moment. When you have a story, any kind of fantasy story, any kind of- really any kind of story at present, most stories... at present... when you're interacting with them, you're interacting with a very small segment of the world. And often that very small segment has been conflated. It's been brought into one, it's been pushed together and it is a bit of a mishmash but it's a bit of a mishmash of one type of story. What Omen's Rising does is it says, "Okay..." The brief for what we did was: "Okay, I would like you to create a culture that is somewhere that you would want to live, or culture of people that you would want to be around, that you would want to spend time with." And so, all of these people from all of these diverse places with these diverse experiences, and sometimes these diverse perceptions- all of these people have come together and created a world that they would feel comfortable in, or that they would feel welcome in. And that doesn't necessarily mean that we're missing anything. Because I mean we've got things like the Kismet, who are fondly known as the forest witches. We've got... I designed a culture called the Silent Walkers and they move around the world, they don't say still, they speak telepathically. They can but they rarely communicate out loud. They use makeup to communicate what they're feeling to the world, which is a whole language in my head but it's not going to be that in... in the final product. The thing I think that Omen's Rising has shown me or taught me is that with other games I feel sad because the connection to it feels much more general than I would like. I, as noted, I like to be intentional with things. I like to be quite intentional with my decisions, I like to be intentional... well, largely... I like to be intentional with my processes and the ways that I build worlds becomes very intentional as well. And so the culture that I built - they do things very intentionally. When I'm looking at 5e [Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition], for example... what I see is a generically white environment. And that doesn't matter where you go in the world. Okay, there are loads and loads of different environments, and people look different in all those places, but because it's written from the perspective of white people looking at that environment - it doesn't feel any different. You leave the Forgotten Realms and you're still in the Forgotten Realms - it just has different pictures. That to me is really sad because I know that across the world that are hundreds and hundreds of cultures that actually fit inside the concept of whiteness and that is very... I feel cheated... more than anything, really. I just feel cheated. There are so many very specific ways in which people interact, and when we are creating worlds when we're living in worlds, when we're doing things we're coming at it from a very specific perspective and I feel as though... As soon as you start to invite diverse audiences into- diverse audiences, but also diverse creatives, into a space - that opens the door for: "Oh, wait - you're being that specific about, like, where you have come from and where you grew up, and why it's important that you grew up there and not there? Well, okay, but I don't- I mean, I- I know that- like I'm from Europe." "Okay cool, but where in Europe?" "I'm from, ah... the UK." "Okay, so where in the UK?" "Um, Scotland." "Okay. So that tells me something, you know... How long ago did you leave Scotland?" "Well, I dunno, they- they traveled over with the First Fleet." "Okay, cool. So, what does that tell you about your history? What does that tell you about how you live now? What does that tell you about where you might be going?" Because all of those things become important. And they only seem to be important when it is not someone that's white but it is just as important to me. Where people have come from and what environments they've been raised in and what experiences they have had or what experiences their cultures have taught them. Because, I mean we just look at different words around the world and despite the fact that they're all Western culture, the words are going to be different. Like the language that's used on the East Coast of the US is very different from the language used on the West Coast. And I've seen it, I've- I've heard it, I've- I've been really entertained by it. There's a reason the accents are all different because the way that people use their mouths in those places is different. And I feel as though that is what is being lost when we play certain games, because we are generalizing something that as soon as it becomes just a little bit more specific, gets a lot rounder - becomes a lot richer.


Melody [7:57]
Well, Omen's Rising sounds like a pretty neat game! And I love your perspective on things. Thank you so much for sharing that! Okay, moving on, here's our last question for this podcast episode: Can you describe your better self for us?

ShauntelleB [8:13]
Ooh, um, ahh, n-n-no? Um, my, my, my better self. Uh, n-n-no... largely because my better self is just... me? Um, my view on the world in general is that no one can ask me to do more than my best at any given point in time. So, if I can't do more than my best, then, I don't know what my better self would be. I don't know who that would be, because if I can't conceive of how I would do better. Then, how do I make it happen? And if I can conceive of it. Then why am I not doing it, and therefore, that just means that it's me, because I would just do it.


Melody [9:06]
Well that's perfectly good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us Shauntelle!

To our listeners: Please check the podcast description for details on how you can connect with Shauntelle B, and for more information about the Omen's Rising tabletop role playing game. In our next episode we will chat with Shauntelle B about character bleed, neurodiversity, and the art of listening so stay tuned! Follow us to receive notifications when new podcasts are released. For more podcasts, and information, check out our website: https://www.gamemastercertification.org/. Like what you've heard here? Please hit that share button and help us spread the word! Thank you for listening.